Xbox or PS4? Maybe that's the wrong question: CNET News Video

About Video

CNET News Video: Xbox or PS4? Maybe that's the wrong question

2:55 /
November 22, 2013

With the release of the new Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it's natural to pit the rivals against each other and compare features, prices, and games. The obvious question is which one to buy. But as CNET's Sumi Das and Eric Franklin explain, the better question may be when to buy one.

A mere week after the launch of its new gaming console, Sony has already sold more than a million PlayStation 4s.
Now, the Microsoft Xbox One has hit stores and so begins the fight for your holiday dollars.
The $500 Xbox is $100 more than the PS4.
Included in each Xbox One is an updated Kinect, Microsoft's motion and voice sensing device.
-It can track more
people in the room, it can kind of recognize you by just your face and sign you into your account.
It does motion trackings of your phone, you're walking around a room, having a Skype call with someone, you just walk around in your room.
It will follow you, it actually tracks your heartbeat, you know, if you're having exercise game.
-Sony has an optional camera you can add for $60.
Microsoft is hoping the Xbox One will also appeal to a more mainstream audience, not just gamers.
-I think Microsoft wants to be your kind of go-to box for your living room.
Microsoft is offering the Fantasy Football Integration.
They're offering cable TV integration where you plug your cable box into the Xbox One.
-Each system will have exclusive game titles to show off stunning graphics and more powerful machine.
-A lot of thick franchises are gonna be in Xbox One.
Halo is gonna be in Xbox One, has a new franchise from the makers, from the original makers of the Modern Warfare,a franchise call Titanfall.
I think they're both gonna have really powerful,
really appealing exclusive game.
-At the E3 gaming conference, Sony's CEO, Jack Tretton told CNET the improved technology would heighten the motion of the games.
-I think, as the technology grows, the ability to make the experience more and more immersive, to really evoke emotion and make people scared when they're playing it, excited.
That and to really get in a relationship with the characters, just like they would whether movie or in TV show.
-But if you're looking to upgrade your current system, you
won't be able to play your old games on the new consoles for now.
-If you have an old system, you probably gonna wanna keep that around for now, even if you buy a new system.
-But instead of focusing on which console to buy, it might be more prudent to think about when to buy.
-So, if you wait, you're gonna get more games, better games, you don't have to deal with the technical launch difficulties.
You might even see a price drop in the future.
-That's what happened with Nintendo's Wii U, which launched last year but to gain attraction at that time.
-It's
a year later.
So, high quality games are starting to come out right now.
And the price is lower, a lot lower than the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
So, I think the Wii U actually makes for a pretty compelling buy this year where last year, [unk].
-Giving credence to that old adage, timing is everything.
In San Francisco, I'm Sumi Das, CNET for CBS News.